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How Fake Missionary School Proprietors Trafficked 92 Children From Adamawa

The kids were taken to Jos, the Plateau State capital, from where they were distributed to willing buyers across the country, with states in the South-East, taking majority of them.

No fewer than 92 children, aged between seven and 13, have been trafficked to different parts of southern Nigeria by proprietors of fake missionary schools in Adamawa State.

SaharaReporters learnt that some of the children are orphans while others are under the care of single parents, all from Madagali Local Government Area, formally occupied by the Boko Haram terrorists.

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As gathered, the vulnerable children were taken from their ancestral homes in Madagali by a cartel of child traffickers who promised them better lives in the city.

The cartel, hiding under the guise of missionary schools proprietors group, allegedly contacted the “Eklisiyan Yan'uwa a Nigeria” (EYN) Church; also known as the Church of the Brethren in Madagali; and offered to help educate the children.

The kids were taken to Jos, the Plateau State capital, from where they were distributed to willing buyers across the country, with states in the South-East, taking majority of them.

The police have however rescued 42 of them and apprehended four suspects in connection to the crime. They are; Dakam Peter 'm' 30yrs, Nicolas Vishe 'm' 29yrs, Luka Yarima 'm' 49yrs and Yusuf Garwa 'm' 35yrs.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Sikiru Akande, confirmed the rescue of the children.

He said, "We are able to trace some underage children (boys and girls) who are indigenes of Adamawa State that had been taken for child labour across Nigeria. Presently, 24 of them are in our custody; they were rescued from different parts of Nigeria.”

Narrating their experiences, some of the children said they provided labour on farms across the South-East and Kaduna State.

Elizabeth, 13, said, "I attended school in a makeshift environment during my first two weeks in Enugu, but afterwards I was engaged on a cassava farm.”

Jennifer, who was given Chiamaka as her new Igbo name said she was doing domestic chores in Umuahia. "I was not enrolled in any school at all", she said.

For seven-year-old Bala Adamu, "they took seven of us from Madagali to Jos, from there we were collected by another man who conveyed us to Kaduna and since then we've been working on his farm.”

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CRIME